Network diffusion on multiple-layers: current approaches and integrative analysis of Rheumatoid Arthritis data

Network Diffusion has been proposed in several applications, thanks to its ability of amplifying biological signals and prioritizing genes that may be associated with a disease. Not surprising, the success of Network Diffusion on a "single layer" led to the first approaches for the joint analysis of multi-omics data. Here, we review integrative methods based on Network Diffusion that have been proposed with several aims (e.g. patient stratification, module detection, function prediction). We used Network Diffusion to analyse, in the context of physical and functional protein-protein interactions, genetic variation, DNA methylation and gene expression data from a study on Rheumatoid Arthritis. We identified functionally related genes with multiple alterations.